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The past is another country — — and MAE WEST was most comfortable there.
• • However, in her Broadway blockbuster "Diamond Lil" [1928] Mae's aim was not to resurrect the naughty nineties — — but to present that bygone decade's sins in shifty soft focus. The world of Diamond Lil, restrained by Victorian morality despite a certain cheeky daring, was a backwards glance to a time of innocence, picturesque entertainment, well-behaved wildness, corset-clad temptresses, The Police Gazette's seductions, and 5-cent beer.
• • Drama critic Stark Young [1881—1963] analyzed Mae's clever maneuvers in his article for The New Republic:
• • "Diamond Lil" is as daring in the end [as 1926's "Sex"], the same sexy morsels, embraces, interventions of the law with rank suspenses, frank speeches, underworld, and so on. But it is more covered, continuous, and studied than the other production, and the crowd of characters, the costuming and vaudevillistic intervals, pull the whole of this later play into a more familiar style, less crudely, and sheerly singular than "Sex" appeared to be [excerpt from The New Republic — 27 June 1928].
• • Louis Lopardi, who will direct "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship and Secrets" in July at the Algonquin Theatre, also feels enriched by the past. His own production — — The Purgatory Project, Part 2 — — reimagined the lives led by four famous historical figures: Sigmund Freud, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Lee Harvey Oswald.
• • A history buff as well as a thespian, Lopardi especially enjoys plays with a classical echo, texts rooted to a mythic past. For instance, he found "Metamorphoses," a play based on the Greek poem Metamorphoses by Ovid, fascinating and he relished the modernized adaptation written by Mary Zimmerman a few years ago. Ovid works onstage because those depictions of yearning and confused desires are timeless, feels Lopardi.
• • Since he has frequently decanted Ovid's ancient songs, he noticed right away the mythic skin underneath "Courting Mae West" — — the Brooklyn bombshell's story reimagined as the metamorphosis of King Midas. How you get the golden touch is one of the subtle sub-plots here. As Mae's career goals recalibrate her box office appeal, she will earn her hard cold slice of success — — but at a cost.
• • "I like a multi-layered comedy," admits Lopardi. "The best shows make you laugh for an hour and a half — — and then, untethered from your Playbill, you mull it over at home."
• • Bringing "Courting Mae West" to an audience requires funding. To support A Company Of Players, a non-profit theatre group established in 1979 to present meaningful theatre, please click on this link — — http://www.companyofplayers.com/support.htm
• • A Company Of Players is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)3 type organization, and donations to the group are considered a charitable, tax-deductible contribution.
• • Contribute through "Pay Pal" or you can mail a check to: A Company Of Players, 545 Eighth Avenue, #401, New York NY 10018-4307.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] soon after the Independence Day holidays.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage in mid-July 2008.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.
It was 19 March 1934 and MAE WEST had sin on her mind. Her new screen gem for Paramount Pictures began production on that date with a spunky working title: "It Ain't No Sin." 
• • Yes, yes, talk about waving a wide red handkerchief in front of Joe Breen's blue nose.
• • In his fascinating All Movie Guide, cinema critic Hal Erickson had this to say: Originally titled "It Ain't No Sin" until the censors prevailed, then "Saint Louis Woman" and "Belle of New Orleans" — — until complaints were registered from those two communities — — "Belle of the Nineties" [runtime: 73 minutes] was Mae West's first post-Production Code film.
• • Mae West is cast as cabaret entertainer Ruby Carter, plying her trade along the Mississippi. Having no trouble surviving on her own terms in a man's world, Ruby fends off the unwarranted attentions of a steady stream of libidinous males, reserving her affections for a muscular boxer called The Tiger Kid (Roger Pryor).
• • In keeping with the star's casual liberality, a number of black entertainers and athletes are given ample opportunities in this film, notably Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. The surest sign that the Code had "tamed" West a bit is the fact that she actually marries the hero at film's end. The musical highlights include West's unforgettable rendition of "My Old Flame."
• • Source: Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1934 • •
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Mae West.
Despite having an ambivalent relationship with her father, MAE WEST took after him and also worked for him when he peddled fruit in Brooklyn and when he helmed a "detective agency" in New Jersey.
• • Born on Manhattan's Lower East Side in March 1866, John West [called "Jack"] grew up feisty, impatient, and strong. As a child he boasted that he'd rather fight than eat. He got his Irish up rather quickly, remembered Mae. He was easily angered and "always ready to do physical violence when the urge was on him." In 1969, Mae revealed in an interview that she thought her father was cruel — — but realized "all his fighting was done doing other people's fighting for them."
• • Jack West was 7 years old in 1873 when his family moved to Brooklyn, settling first in Red Hook, and then in Greenpoint.
• • Though he had no inclination to follow his father's vocation as a ship rigger, Jack knew his parents wanted him to learn a trade; they apprenticed him to a boilermaker in 1880 when he was 14.
• • But Jack West was contemplating starting a fire in the arena. At 11 years old, "Battling Jack" had fought in his first boxing match as a featherweight and yearned to become a bare-knuckles champion. These matches were often arranged by local racketeers. His favorite place to hang out was the gymnasium. His closest companions were weightlifters and boxers.
• • During the late 1880s, Jack was sidetracked from his vigorous athletic routine after meeting a buxom young lady named Matilda Delker [born in 1870 in Bavaria]. Youthful rebels, Jack and Tillie had much in common. Both defied their parents' expectations, Jack through boxing and Tillie through entertaining the idea of a theatrical career.
• • Initially, the couple forged a passionate bond. Mae explained, "My father had swept her off her feet." But Tillie's youthful transgressive ambitions met an end with Jack West.
• • On 19 January 1889, in Greenpoint, Battling Jack West and Tillie Delker took their wedding vows before a local minister with Jack's sister Julia West acting as maid of honor.
• • Their first child Katie came along soon after but, unfortunately, the infant died. The Wests became even more attached to their second child — — Mary Jane. Named for her Irish grandmother, their second daughter was born in Brooklyn on 17 August 1893.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.
Ohio native Tara Leigh Patrick [born 20 April 1972] — — professionally known as Carmen Electra — — has defended her decision to totter around in barely-there wearables, saying she just wants to follow in the footsteps of the likes of MAE WEST and Marilyn Monroe [1926 — 1962].
• • Not bright enough to realize that "Electra" is a tragic name, the former Playboy pin-up and Baywatch eyeful also is not aware of the fact that Mae West does not strip in films. The 36-year-old Carmen Electra gaily sheds her clothing in her latest screen disaster "Meet The Spartans," designed to be a spoof of the hit movie 300. Her silicone enhanced curves are meant to be one of the highlights of her so-lame-it's-a-shame vehicle.
• • Film reviewer Dave White weighed in on the merits of this turkey: "It's 300. But like if 300 were already dumber than it is. And it's got Carmen Electra and Kevin Sorbo. Because they'll do anything for money. Apparently, so will I because it's my job to watch it."
• • According to Dave White, here is "The Other Most Annoying Thing" which cannot be redeemed even by Carmen Electra's pumped up amplitude: "Not the constant gay jokes nor the constant shower of feces and puke, but the fact that the movie steals gags from other sources. A bit from Dave Chapelle here, a bit from Mel Brooks there. It's reprehensible of course, but then again its target audience is the niche market of the world's stupidest 10-year-olds. ..."
• • If Carmen Electra really wishes to follow in the footsteps of Marilyn Monroe, she ought to keep in mind that the late screen goddess departed at age 36. Time's up!
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
NYC
Mae West.
Let us devote some time to a vaudevillian who died at age 83 during March 1982, an entertainer whose gold-dusted dreams never quite came true. On 8 December 1898 MAE WEST and her parents welcomed a new addition to the household — — sister Mildreth Katharina, who later changed her name to Beverly. 
• • Also an aspiring actress, kid sister Beverly performed at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in 1916 in an act billed as "Mae West and Sister."
• • One song-and-dance number featured Mae clad in male drag opposite a very feminine Beverly (who actually got better reviews than the tough-talking Mae).
• • Few Mae-mavens realize that Beverly understudied her sister in three Broadway shows: "Sex," "Diamond Lil," and "The Constant Sinner."
• • Negative anecdotes about Beverly — — her drinking, her failed marriages, and her mental deterioration — — have popped up in every biography of her more famous sibling.• • But every now and then a journalist would interview Beverly about her career. In 1933, Edward Sammis spoke to her and then wrote this rather rosy-tinged puff piece:
• • Picture Beverly's dilemma. As Mae's double, she could never hope for a break for herself unless misfortune befell her beloved sister — — and that was the last thing in the world she wanted to happen. It never did happen. Beverly was on hand, waiting in Mae's dressing room with her make-up on, night after night, ready for the emergency that never came. Mae, in all those months, never missed a single performance.
• • Beverly didn't mind. She was happy enough to see her sister get ahead. The patter of applause coming to her out through the wings night after night was music to her ears.
• • Then Mae got her chance to go to Hollywood. And Beverly was out of a job. Beverly went along, of course. They lived together in a bungalow during Mae's first months in Hollywood. But there is no place for an understudy in pictures. When the star is indisposed, production waits.
• • Money didn't matter. Mae was making money enough for both of them, and to spare. But for the first time since her girlhood days, Beverly found herself with nothing to do. She began to get restless. She thought of picking up the threads of her own career again. But great changes had come to the vaudeville business since she was a headline attraction. "Beverly West and Company" was a hazy memory to those in the game now. In those long anonymous years which she had spent backstage as Mae's understudy, living entirely in the roles of Mae's creating without benefit of audience, waiting for the emergency that never came, she had lost most of her own identity. . . .
• • Excerpt: The Strange Career of Mae West's Kid Sister• • Byline: Edwards R. Sammis, Broadway Correspondent• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with Timony, Beverly, and her family • •
NYC
Mae West.
Mae West was such a treat to meet, recalls the effervescent actress Quinn O'Hara. 
• • Quinn O'Hara remembers the warm humid day when they met at a Hollywood hoe-down given by the director of "One Day at a Time" — — Herbert Kenwith. "I had just done one of the episodes and Herb Kenwith was such a lovely person, too," she explained. Listen to the eternally beautiful Quinn O'Hara recount this special evening event exclusively for the Mae West Blog.
• • When I met Mae, she was very nice to me. My hair is simply frightful in humid weather, so I had to do "the Mae West thing" of patting my hair, to keep it in place.
• • Since I had been following her around like a puppy, I wanted to apologize to Mae and explain that I wasn't trying to imitate her.
• • Mae West looked at me and smiled — — and said, as only she could — — "My dear, you have beautiful hair!"
• • Several guests nearly fainted. I discovered that she rarely ever complimented a woman. Then I took a chance and asked if I might have my picture taken with her, and voila! Here is the photo I treasure. There will always be no one like Mae West!!
• • The photograph is the personal property of Quinn O'Hara. Please do not "steal" it for your blog or web site. Thank you for the courtesy.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • with Quinn O'Hara and Paul Novak, 1977 • •
NYC
Mae West.
"COURTING MAE WEST" will have a table reading in the month of March [2008], under the direction of Louis Lopardi, at The Producers Club. 
• • A Company of Players will read the script aloud in preparation for a short Workshop Production in Manhattan.
• • Meanwhile, the search continues for the right actress to portray Mae West [1893—1980] — — in this serious-minded comedy that offers a star-making role. During the Prohibition Era, the Brooklyn bombshell was in her thirties. The ideal audition candidate is 25—30 with serious stage training and industrial strength charisma.
• • In Act I, Scene 1, set during December 1926, Mae West is 33 years old and curvy — — but not hefty. The play follows the actress-author through her box office triumph in "Sex"; her arrests, imprisonment, and legal woes (1927—1930); and ends in Hollywood when the 39-year-old is filming "She Done Him Wrong" for Paramount Pictures in December 1932.
• • Rehearsals begin in May 2008 in Manhattan.
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• • Resumes and photo to:
• • A Company of Players
• • Send Email via the web site — — www.CompanyofPlayers.com
_________________________• • The Producers Club is where the table reading will take place.• • The Producers Club is located at 358 West 44th Street [between 8th-9th Avenue], New York, NY 10036.
• • Meanwhile, a fundraising effort is in progress. Matching funds have been promised for every dollar raised.
• • "Courting Mae West: Sex, Censorship, and Secrets" will be onstage at the Algonquin Theatre [123 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010] soon after the Independence Day holidays.
• • Get ready to come up and see Mae onstage in mid-July 2008.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: Mae West • • Barry O'Neill • • "Sex" 1926 • •
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Mae West.
Distressing warnings about fake MAE WEST keepsakes have been spotted on several fan sites including Mark Bellinghaus’s Weblog on WordPress.
• • Mark Bellinghaus cautions buyers to avoid a Plainfield, New Jersey hoaxster called "starspast" who sells on eBay. He writes: "starspast is selling more FAKES!"
• • According to Mark Bellinghaus: NOTHING of the items you can see below [on his website] is for real. Frank F_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, 42, the biggest crook on eBay in terms of Entertainment Memorabilia was caught and he has been reported to eBay and PayPal, it is being investigated — — but in the meantime, this criminal is screwing more innocent people with his dreadful fakes which he buys fabricates by going to garage sales, thrift stores, and his basement, he forged the signatures of several documents, and he especially forges all the signatures he adds to all the items such as the previously owned accessories of Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, etc.
• • Beware of the Frank F_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ fakes — — once you buy and own them, you will not be able to resell, once this criminal is going where he belongs for many years now: PRISON!
• • For photographs of fake MAE WEST items and more coverage on "Frank F_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _’s Criminal Creations," read Mark Bellinghaus: http://markbellinghaus.wordpress.com/
• • Yet another source for this information is Jennifer J. Dickinson: http://writingsandworksofjenniferdickinson.blogspot.com/• • It was requested that we remove the surname of this individual from our own postings. Thus we have done so. We would like to remind our readers, however, to use caution when buying items supposedly owned by movie stars and other memorabilia. Vendors can be dishonest and use deceptive practices.
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• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/ ________ Source:http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • • NYC
Mae West.
Named in honor of MAE WEST was The Mae West Fest [1996—2007].
• • The Mae West Fest had been an annual festival and celebration of women as playwrights, producers, directors, and performers. Operating on a shoe-string budget and fed by e big dreams, The Mae West Fest began a decade ago out of the need for theatre that helped nurture and challenge local women artists and playwrights in Seattle, Washington.
• • The Mae West Fest sprang from the need to have more women's work onstage in the Pacific northwest area. In 1996 founders Heidi Heimarck and Elena Hartwell were discussing the upcoming season for a small Seattle fringe company and realized that they had a pile of scripts by written by women, about 10 seasons worth. From July 31 to August 3, 1997, Seattle got its first glimpse at the festival filled with a lot of female artistic power.
• • Last year The Mae West Fest announced its first "Female Protagonist Contest," which was an invitation for female dramatists to submit full-length plays for consideration.
• • Funding has dried up, unfortunately, and The Mae West Fest 's home page — — www.maewestfest.org — — apologized for its sudden demise.
• • Is original theatre by women dead? Any visionaries out there?
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.
From 1912 — 1916, MAE WEST had an ally in vaudeville: her well-connected booking agent Frank Bohm. 
• • When the Brooklyn-born tough chick was 19 years old, she described herself as "a hard-boiled, wise-cracking kid, doing anything to get a laugh."
• • Born in Hungary in 1883/4, the 29-year-old booking agent at first struck Mae as brash and rude; when first introduced, he didn't even bother to remove his hat. But he was soon exerting his influence, cautioning her against being a sidewalk cut-up and giving away her good stuff for free.
• • And not long after, Mae was influencing Bohm; she confided that the married man (with a pregnant wife) was "in trouble" over her. Soon they were sitting in a Times Square restaurant having dinner when Frank Bohm presented Mae with a diamond ring as he implored her not to encourage a rival agent: Joseph M. Schenck, the Loew circuit booking manager.
• • Mae's career took flight under Frank Bohm. In 1912, he arranged for her to appear on sheet music for "Cuddle Up and Cling to Me" with the "Girard Boys." Shortly after, he encouraged her to go out as a single in variety, promising her $350 — $500 week. And knowing she was special in his eyes, Mae took full advantage of this stepping stone.
• • Mae West claimed that her father went into real estate when she signed with Frank Bohm.
• • When Guido Deiro and Mae were hot and heavy over each other, it was Bohm who was booking them both — — "engaged jointly as headline features" for 40 weeks on the prestigious Loew circuit.
• • Under Bohm's careful grooming, Mae transformed herself into a headliner for Manhattan's American Roof Theatre in January 1915 where she performed Sheldon Brooks's "Balling the Jack" and her trademark number "I've Got a Style All My Own."
• • Unfortunately, the agent who was so "generous, vital, and adoring" to Mae was cut down by tuberculosis of the spine when he was only 33. Frank Bohm died on 9 March 1916.
• • By March 1916, however, Mae West had fallen mightily off the wagon to the stars. From applauded headliner at a good theatre steps from Broadway in January 1915, by March 1916 Mae was slaving away at Pittsburgh's Victoria Theatre, performing in cheap, third-rate burlesque.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1912 • •
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Mae West.
MAE WEST continued to revise her play "Pleasure Man," hoping to get her 1928 "comedy drama" produced.
• • Of course, as Mae-mavens know, she never did. However, a staged reading in New York City five years ago dragged the dusty script back into being for two hours on Bleecker Street — — amid shamrocks, shillelaghs, and serpents on St. Patrick's Day.
• • Female impressionist Charles Busch starred as "The Bird of Paradise" at a benefit reading on 17 March 2003.
• • The production notes for that one-night-only event described the narrative: "Set backstage in a third rate vaudeville house, 'The Pleasure Man' is a comedy-melodrama about the exploits of a Lothario whose dalliances lead to his death. Along with acrobats, comedians and dancing girls, the play features a troupe of female impersonators. The original October 1928 Broadway production ran for three performances, two of which were raided by the New York City vice squad. The police arrested the cast of nearly 60 (still in costume) on obscenity charges and West bailed the entire company out of prison both times. The show trial that followed resulted in a split jury and West was acquitted."
• • Directed by Elyse Singer, with music direction by Jeff Stock, the cast of "The Pleasure Man" includes performances by over 40 actors drawn from the Broadway, downtown, indie film and drag communities. Drag performers scheduled to appear are Flotilla deBarge, Sunrize Highway, Murray Hill, Brini Maxwell, and Cashetta, the magician. . . .
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West after she was arrested • • 2 October 1928 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST was the central concern when Time Out New York interviewed her 1970 co-star Raquel Welch recently.
• • Melissa Anderson writes: When Myra Breckinridge, Michael Sarne’s X-rated adaptation of Gore Vidal’s novel was released in 1970, it was greeted with unanimous raspberries: One critic called it “about as funny as a child molester.” Viewers can decide for themselves, but one thing is certain — — the film had a particularly inspired cast, including Mae West, Rex Reed, John Huston and, in the title role, Raquel Welch. The chatty and charming Welch, 67, spoke with TONY from her home in Los Angeles about working on one of the most notorious films of the last 40 years.
• • TONY: What was it like working with Mae West?
• • Raquel: I found her surreal. Here was this star from the ’30s who had this unbelievably different way of doing things. Now she’s doing this movie in 1969—1970, and she’s never made a color movie before in her life.
• • I wouldn’t want to undertake that at 77. I thought, She’s got a lot of chutzpah and she’s completely bonkers. Mae was one of those people I always felt had a distinctly masculine vibration about her.
• • I have often ventured the opinion that she was a man in drag. [Laughs]
• • Source: Time Out New York
• • Author: Melissa Anderson
• • Issue 649: March 6-12, 2008
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • Michael Childers • • 1969 • •
NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST returns to the East Village — — March 7th-9th, 2008 — — and even though "Myra Breckinridge" is not her most deliciously whipped screen-puff, every local critic covered the announcement that the Brooklyn bombshell is back. 
• • Nicolas Rapold, the "h" missing Arts & Letters columnist for The New York Sun, said it best. Rapold explained: Joining Ms. Welch, who might have known better after appearing in Southern's "The Magic Christian," was 1930s vaudeville-born sexpot performer-gag writer Mae West. Here, age 76, she's looking for man-flesh as a casting agent with admirable, unstinting innuendo. . . .
• • But all this leaves the best for last, as Mae West might say, though she'd make it sound dirty, added Rapold. As queen of the casting couch Leticia Van Allen, West leers at rows of aspirant young bucks (including a green Tom Selleck) and savors lines she might have liked to deliver onscreen decades earlier. Costumed specially by Edith Head and encased in makeup or some species of preservative that renders her face a peaked waxen death mask, West presides over her own musical numbers, including a funk ditty. In her way, she's one of the more inspiring bits of taboo-taunting here (— — and it wasn't even her last bow: See 1978's "Sextette" opposite Timothy Dalton). Still, as a critic once wrote of Preminger's "Skidoo," this all inevitably sounds more interesting than it plays.
• • "Myra Breckinridge" — — Through 9 March 2008 [32 Second Avenue, between 1st and 2nd Streets (anthologyfilmarchives.org); 212-505-5181].
• • Source:
• • "Vidal's Not-So-Tender Gender Bender"
• • Byline: Nicolas Rapold
• • The New York Sun
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1970 • •
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Mae West.
It was not long after the new Sardi's opened on 5 March 1927 that MAE WEST arrived.
• • Sardi's is a restaurant in New York City's theater district at 234 West 44th Street (west of Broadway). Known for its "Wall of Fame" — — numerous wall-mounted, often distorted and unflattering caricatures of show-business celebrities — — Sardi's threw open the doors to its current location on 5 March 1927.
• • Vincent Sardi, Sr. [23 December 1885 — 19 November 1969] opened his first Times Square eatery with his wife Eugenia ("Jenny"), The Little Restaurant, at 146 West 44th Street in 1921. Five years later, when that building was slated for demolition, Mr. and Mrs. Sardi accepted an offer from theater moguls, the Shubert brothers, to relocate to a new building the brothers were erecting.
• • When business slowed after the move, Vincent Sardi searched for a gimmick to attract customers and attention. Recalling the movie-star caricatures that decorated the walls of Joe Zelli’s, a Parisian restaurant and jazz club, Sardi decided to recreate that effect in his establishment. He hired a Russian refugee named Alex Gard [1900-1948] to do drawings of Broadway box-office sensations.
• • Her show "Diamond Lil" [1928 — 1929] at the Royale Theatre made her the new darling of the Great White Way and Alex Gard had to have her head. His friend Sidney Skolsky introduced them. Though we do have an early draft of the sketch, it is too unflattering to duplicate. In his malicious portrait, Alex Gard cast Mae West not unlike an early version of Miss Piggy. And that's all, folks, on this topic.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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Mae West.
Thanks to MAE WEST, movie-buffs will never forget Rochelle Hudson, who played Sally Glynn on the 1933 classic "She Done Him Wrong." 
We're thinking about her because she was born in March — — on 6 March perhaps in 1914.
• • Unfortunately, the skidrow barrooms saw far too many Sally Glynns.• • Mae West knew the stories about the notorious Bowery "resort" near Houston Street, namely McGurk's Suicide Hall [295 Bowery]. The second chapter of "Diamond Lil" (a 256-page novelization of the play published by Macaulay in 1932) is Suicide Hall.
• • Mae West understood that the Bowery boy and his female counterpart — — the "Tough Girl" — — had to be made amusing before they would be accepted as entertainment. And so by the time Diamond Lil sashays inside Suicide Hall, bejeweled and gowned, the sinister setting had been properly de-fanged.
• • The real Suicide Hall was no place for a nice girl. According to an article [13 May 1999] in The New York Times, the building had been a hotel during the Civil War, catering to returning soldiers. By the 1890s it was a brothel and a dive where . . . a half-dozen destitute courtesans drank carbolic acid and died. John H. McGurk, the owner of the saloon on the ground floor, then capitalized on the notoriety of the place by renaming it McGurk’s Suicide Hall.
• • In the original Broadway production of "Diamond Lil" [1928-1929], the troubled young Sally was portrayed by Lois Jesson. The fresh-faced stage actress, who had graduated from Mansfield High School (the class of 1917) in Richland County, Ohio, stayed active in legitimate theatre in New York City for five years after her 1928 debut.
• • Paramount Pictures, who re-cast most of the roles when making "She Done Him Wrong" [1933], saw a glimmer of Sally Glynn in Rochelle Hudson.
• • Oklahoma City native Rochelle Hudson [6 March 1914? — 17 January 1972] was active in the entertainment scene from the 1930s—1960s.
• • Rochelle Hudson's career began when a friend of her mother's, who had connections with the studio of 20th Century Fox, got the 16-year-old signed to a contract in 1930. At first, the teenager was trained by Fox's voice coach, who then farmed her out for singing work on radio and voice-overs in Warner Brothers' popular cartoon "Bosko." Hudson's first flicker of credit on the silver screen, on loan to RKO Pictures, was as Carmen in "Fanny Foley Herself" [1931].
• • Often shoe-horned into sunny girl-next-door parts, Hudson was also effectively cast as tomboys and slatterns.
• • By December 1932, Rochelle Hudson (now in Paramount's hands) got her chance to walk into Suicide Hall — — Gus Jordan's saloon — — and leave an indelible impression on celluloid.
• • As in Mae's play, Sally Glynn enters with torn clothes. In silhouette, she attempts suicide but is prevented, and brought to Lady Lou's boudoir upstairs to recover. Intuitively, Mae West's character senses this is a romantic problem. When Sally wonders how she knows it is man-woe, Lady Lou replies: "You know, it takes two to get one in trouble."
• • Lou asks: "What was he? Married?"
• • Sally replies: "Yes, but I didn't know."
• • Lou explains: "Men's all alike — — married or single. It's their game. I happen to be smart enough to play it their way. You'll come to it."
• • Ever optimistic, Lady Lou suggests that Sally gets a new wardrobe and a change of attitude: "Always remember to smile. You'll never have anything to worry about. Forget about this guy. See that you get a good one the next time."
• • Sally frets that she's a goner: "Who'd want me after what I've done?"
• • Lou replies: "Listen, when women go wrong, men go right after them."
• • Lou explains to Gus Jordan, Serge Stanieff, and Rita what the commotion was: "Some guy done her wrong. The story's so old it should have been set to music long ago."
• • Rita demonstrates interest in the wronged girl, thinking she might be useful to them in their underworld schemes: "What a sweet, innocent face?... Can you sing and dance, perhaps? ... Well, but you'd be willing to learn... Then I think I can find you a very nice position. Have you heard perhaps of the Barbary Coast?"
• • Gus and Rita tell Lou that they will help Sally Glynn, though obviously they have evil intentions — — and (supposedly) Lou is unaware of their criminal designs. But one look at Lady Lou and the audience may doubt anything could escape her.
• • After doing herself credit as the wretched luckless Sally, Rochelle Hudson went forward to co-star in "Wild Boys of the Road" [1933], portray Cosette in "Les Misérables" [1935], and play Natalie Wood's mother in the iconic "Rebel Without a Cause" [1955].
• • Notable roles for Rochelle Hudson also included: Claudette Colbert's adult daughter in "Imitation of Life" [1934]; Richard Cromwell's love interest in the Will Rogers (a fellow Oklahoman) showcase "Life Begins at 40" [1935]; and the daughter of carnival barker W.C. Fields in "Poppy" [1936].
• • Man woes pursued her in real life, though; she went to the altar four times.
• • After her heyday in the 1930s, Rochelle Hudson's career dwindled into "B"-picture leads. TV kept her busy for awhile. She co-starred on the 1954 sitcom "That's My Boy" and made appearances in many anthology series.
• • In 1967, she retired from show business for good and used her contacts as a real estate agent to the stars.
• • Pneumonia and a love for the bottle hastened an early curtain. She died on 17 January 1972 in Palm Desert, California when she about 57. • • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's co-star • • Rochelle Hudson • •
NYC
Mae West.
From his backstage vantage point, Chad Jones offered his "Thoughts on Sex" and MAE WEST. 
• • Discussing the Aurora Theatre Company’s production of Sex for the Contra Costa Times, drama critic Chad Jones had this impression.
• • "Sex" has some very funny lines, and Mae West wrote herself an interesting role in Margy LaMont, a Montreal prostitute who attempts to go straight and gets involved with a naive society boy. But the dialogue is stiff and dated, and as for plot, well, nothing really kicks in until Act 3 when the past and present clash in an amusing way.
• • What makes Sex interesting now is, of course, Mae West herself. She wrote this piece before she had fully developed her trademark Mae West persona, so we get her intelligence, humor and strength with less of the robotic waxwork mechanisms she later created for herself.
• • Delia MacDougall has always been a smart, reliable actor, and she knows that simply doing a Mae West impersonation for 2 1/2 hours isn’t going to cut it. So we get glimpses of Mae — — especially when MacDougall struts and sings “Sweet Man” and “Shake That Thing” (a great ensemble number) — — but what we really get is Margy, a worldly broad desperate to make something of her life. She doesn’t exactly have a heart of gold, but she has a brain and good instincts. And perhaps most happily of all, she has a raging libido, and she owns it.
• • Delia MacDougall is marvelous (and she looks fantastic in Cassandra Carpenter’s 1920s dresses). Her performance alone should make you eager to dive headlong into Sex. ...
• • Excerpt from: "Theatre Dogs: Backstage with Chad Jones"
• • Source: ContraCostaTimes.com
• • Posted on Saturday, November 10th, 2007
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • In this scene from "Sex: A Comedy Drama" [1926] prostitute Margy LaMont (who has been dating the well-heeled Jimmy Stanton) tells off society lady Clara Stanton.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/________ Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West's "Sex" • • 2007 • •NYC
Mae West.
• • However, in her Broadway blockbuster "Diamond Lil" [1928] Mae's aim was not to resurrect the naughty nineties — — but to present that bygone decade's sins in shifty soft focus. The world of Diamond Lil, restrained by Victorian morality despite a certain cheeky daring, was a backwards glance to a time of innocence, picturesque entertainment, well-behaved wildness, corset-clad temptresses, The Police Gazette's seductions, and 5-cent beer.
• • Since he has frequently decanted Ovid's ancient songs, he noticed right away the mythic skin underneath "Courting Mae West" — — the Brooklyn bombshell's story reimagined as the metamorphosis of King Midas. How you get the golden touch is one of the subtle sub-plots here. As Mae's career goals recalibrate her box office appeal, she will earn her hard cold slice of success — — but at a cost.
